Russia's economy is so bad, unemployed migrant workers are turning to the Islamic State

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Tajik migrant worker looks through a window of a building at a
vegetable market on the outskirts of Moscow.Reuters/Denis Sinyakov

Tajik workers in Russia were hit hard by new migrant laws
and the ruble's devaluation over the last year.

And now a small number of them looking to the
Islamic State because they see no other economic options.

"Islamic State recruiters are at the ready, offering large sums
of cash to desperate, unemployed worked to go fight in Syria,"
writes Karoun Demirjian in the Washington Post. "And many —
given the lack of options in the poorest of the former Soviet
republics — are answering the call."

“If our citizens who are without work, who are young, who
don’t have a salary, who don’t have a life, are offered a golden
city and told ‘you can earn more money, you can improve your
conditions’ — naturally he would feel that he would be much
better off going to fight in Syria,” Mavjuda Azizova, of the
International Organization for Migration’s Tajikistan office,
told WaPo in an interview.

"In most cases, those people that go are very poor.
It's not about religion, it's about
poverty," Oinihol Bobonazarova, a well-known
human rights activist,
told WaPo.

This isn't completely unexpected because migrant workers
are facing two major problems: the ruble's devaluation and
increased costs associated with finding work.

With the ruble's fall against the US dollar, migrant
workers' wages are now worth less than they used to in their own
national currencies. That's a problem,
according to the
head of the Tajik Migrants Workers, Karmot
Sharipov, as Tajik workers in Russia
have high-interest rate loans in dollars back home, and now that
the ruble was weaker, workers needed to find work elsewhere to
pay off loans.

Additionally, it's getting more and more expensive for
migrant workers to find jobs. Starting on January 1, migrant
workers in Russia have to take a mandatory exam about
Russian culture, history, and language that costs 30,000
rubles (~$500). Plus, they have to get expensive permits and pay
monthly fees for their jobs.

Remittances made up an
equivalent of 49% of Tajikistan's GDP in 2013.
However, last year the number fell by about 8%, and the
number is projected to decline another 23% in 2015, according
to EurasiaNet.

“If the authorities could make it possible for people to
work and live, I do not think there would be any radical groups —
people would not want to join,” Hikmatullo
Saifullozoda, head of the analytical center of the Islamic
Revival Party, told WaPo.